Don’t Let Flies Invade Your Knoxville Home in the Summer

Don't Let Flies Invade Your Knoxville Home in the Summer

You don’t want flies invading your Knoxville home this summer, so it’s time to take precautions to keep them out. There are a variety of ways that flies can get into your home. Once they are inside, they are nothing but an annoying nuisance. You can take steps to prevent them as much as possible. However professional treatment can be worthwhile for fly-infested homes.

 

How Flies Get into Homes

We should be wondering how flies don’t get into homes rather than how they do get in. They are so small it’s a wonder our Knoxville homes aren’t constantly filled with flies.

 

Let’s look at some of the most common ways flies get in, from house flies to fruit flies:

  • Through the front door. Whether from kids running in and out or leaving the door open to let in the fresh air, it’s easy for flies to come right in.
  • Through the window. Whether you have the windows open this summer or you have tears or holes in your screen, flies will make their way in.
  • In your belongings. From groceries to house plants, anything you carry in from outside has the potential to harbor flies – especially fruit flies.

Why Flies are a Nuisance

Most people don’t enjoy the company of pests in their homes. Flies can be particularly annoying as they buzz around your head or divebomb your food. Due to their habits of hanging around trash, dirty drains, and feces, they can also carry contaminants. When they land on the surfaces within your home, they can transmit these disease-carrying contaminants to your family.

 

Preventing Flies

There are several things Knoxville homeowners can do this summer to prevent flies as much as possible:

 

  • Keep doors and windows closed unless you have sturdy screens in place.
  • Make sure that screens are in good repair with no holes or tears.
  • Take the trash out frequently and store food in airtight containers to reduce food sources.
  • Clean drains and garbage disposals frequently.
  • Check around your home to repair cracks and seal openings, wherever possible.

Professional Treatment for Flies

You may spend time searching for DIY methods of fly removal should you find yourself with a fly-infested home. Most of the time these methods are futile and are a waste of time while allowing your fly population to grow. One or two stray flies in your Knoxville home aren’t of much concern. However, if you are regularly dealing with flies or large populations of flies, including house flies, blow flies, or fruit flies, it’s time to contact a professional.

 

At Russell’s Pest Control we have 40 years’ experience ridding Knoxville-area homes of flies and other nuisance pests. Contact us for options in keeping your Tennessee home free from flies this summer.

Are House Flies Dangerous?

Are House Flies Dangerous?

Dealing with house flies can certainly be annoying. Having them land on your food, your kitchen utensils, or your arms and legs is surely enough to frustrate a person. The constant buzzing and persistence is close to intolerable. When around these pests, it’s easy to realize the annoyance, but there’s another underlying problem that can easily slip people’s minds as they angrily swat them away. Are house flies actually dangerous? The answer to this is, yes, but we’ll get to the details of this later on.

The house fly is the most common fly to be found in a person’s home. They encompass 90% of all fly infestations, so it’s likely you’ve encountered these types of flies before. They’re about 6 to 7 mm long and gray in color with black lines on their backs. Their eyes are red and they have a set of wings. For more description, check out our pest guide page.

On top of being the most common fly to infest a home, they are also one of the top flies for spreading bacteria. While they do not bite, they can spread disease by flying from place to place. This is what makes house flies so dangerous. Think about how quickly these guys are as they buzz around you. One minute they’re in the dumpster, crawling over rotting food, and the next, they’re on the dinner you just prepared. Picking up the bacteria on their bodies allows them to spread it to the next place they land. Ultimately, this contaminates food or kitchen supplies, which can cause a person to become ill. House flies are capable of spreading at least 65 diseases, including salmonella, typhoid fever, cholera, and tuberculosis.

The hazards that house flies bring make them unwanted in homes and businesses. If you own a business, the threat is even greater as an infestation could spread illnesses to both employees and customers. This could lead to secondary problems such as lawsuits, bad reviews, loss of products and sales, loss of employees, etc. House flies may be small, but they have the potential to cause devastation.

To prevent the annoyance of flies, and the health risks they pose, prevention is extremely important. In order to prevent house flies follow these steps:

  • Take out trash frequently and keep garbage away from your home. Make sure the bins are well sealed or covered.
  • Store all food using airtight containers.
  • Clean up spills or crumbs. Flies are very talented at finding any source of food that’s around.
  • Replace damaged screens or perhaps screens in your doorways to keep these flies from entering.
  • Seal any cracks or holes that would allow house flies a way to get inside.
  • Dirty dishes and clogged drains can attract these flies as well.

Russell’s Pest Control can help you keep house flies away from your home or business. This time of year, you may notice an increase of flies moving indoors. Don’t let house flies ruin your fall or your health! Partner with Russell’s Pest Control and we’ll help keep your home or facility free of pests. Contact us today to find out more information.

Flushing Out The Drain Flies

At this time of year, I always expect it to be hard to find pest control topics to blog about since even East Tennessee’s relatively mild winters stop the majority of bug-related problems that homeowners in the area face. However, I’m always surprised to find that people have questions about pests during every month of the year because many pests don’t take much of a winter holiday. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had inquiries from friends about roaches, rodents, and spiders. But, the topic that took the cake was one that I didn’t expect: drain flies. I have heard from more than one person that drain flies (which include what we would often call gnats) are proving to be a problem in kitchens and bathrooms right now. So, let’s have a look at some likely culprits.

Drain flies (also known as moth flies) can crop up in any location where water stands for more than about a week without any movement. You are likely to notice the adults first. They’re very small with scaly wings that make them sort of dissolve into a feathery poof when you smash them. The larvae can survive nearly anywhere with moisture, but common breeding sites include floor drains in the garage, tanks for infrequently-used toilets, and trash cans that stay consistently damp.

Another common trouble-maker in this family is the fruit fly. Also known as red-eyed flies, these pesky invaders are pleased to feast on fruit on the counter that’s a little too ripe. They also like dirty garbage disposals, hair-filled bathroom drains, and trashcans. You can recognize them because they have small, brownish bodies and large bright red eyes.

These creatures are fairly unpleasant to share space with, but, quite often, getting rid of them is a quick process. All you need to do is locate their breeding site and clean it up! Of course, there are times when this is a tricky task since they frequent places that don’t often get attention from homeowners. However, we can direct you to some good starting places for your search.

Check your garbage cans first. A little pile of old food in the bottom is easy to blast out with the hose and could eliminate your entire problem. If those are all clean, try checking around your drains. If it’s not obvious at first whether the gnat problem is coming from a specific drain, run a little test. Take a disposable plastic cup of an appropriate size, coat the inside with cooking oil, and then place the cup over the questionable drain for a day. If you find drain flies stuck to the inside of the cup, you have just identified a problem area!

Russell’s Pest Control’s technicians know that prevention is a big part of keeping a pest-free* home. That’s why we promote the use of probiotic bio foam. This foam is loaded with eager little microbes (or good bacteria) that love to feast on decaying organic matter (which is also what those pests love to feast on). Putting bio foam in your drain allows the microbes to work on cleaning out the muck that is so appealing to the pests. Then, when the drain or trashcan is clean, the microbes die because there’s nothing left to eat. Unfortunately for the fruit flies, their food source and breeding site is gone as well. It’s a pretty handy method for cleaning up hard-to-reach areas like garbage disposals or bathroom drains.

Russell’s Pest Control can add bio foaming to a regular pest control service, or you can purchase bio foam from us and apply it yourself (this is allowed because the product doesn’t actually contain any chemicals, just microbes and citrus oil). Of course, if you want to do your own foaming, you should always read the label just as you would with any new cleaner.  Contact us today to learn more!